In Colour (Jamie xx album)

In Colour
Studio album by Jamie xx
Released	29 May 2015
Recorded	2009–14
Studio	Fortress Studios (London, England) Marfa Recording Co. (Marfa, Texas)
Genre	Electronica
Length	42:44
Label	Young Turks
Producer	Four Tet Jamie Smith
Jamie xx chronology
We're New Here (2011) In Colour (2015)
Singles from In Colour
"Girl"/"Sleep Sound" Released: 5 May 2014 "Loud Places" Released: 27 March 2015 "Gosh" Released: 4 May 2015 "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" Released: 22 May 2015

In Colour is the debut studio album by English electronic producer Jamie xx, released on 29 May 2015 by Young Turks. It was his first solo studio record, composed during a five-year period while a member of the indie pop band the xx. In Colour debuted at number 21 on the Billboard 200 and received critical acclaim upon release. It was also named as one of the best albums of 2015 by several publications. The album produced five singles: "Girl", "Sleep Sound", "Gosh", "Loud Places" and "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)".

In Colour debuted at number 3 on the UK Albums Chart, selling 19,255 copies in its first week.^[1] In the United States, the album entered the Billboard 200 at number 21 and the Dance/Electronic Albums chart at number one, with first-week sales of 19,000 copies.^[2] It was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Prize and Best Dance/Electronic Album for the 2016 Grammy Awards.

Background

Smith produced the xx's debut album, xx (2009), "by accident" after sessions with other producers including Diplo were unsuccessful.^[3] Later in 2009, Smith began his solo career when he remixed Florence and the Machine's "You've Got the Love".^[4] Smith was invited by XL Recordings owner Richard Russell to remix Gil Scott-Heron's 2010 album I'm New Here in its entirety. The resulting album, the electronic-based We're New Here, was released in 2011.^[3] He released his debut single, the double A-side "Far Nearer" / "Beat For" in June 2011.^[5] The following year, Smith used samples from We're New Here on Drake's "Take Care", which became a US top-10 hit.^[6]

Composition

The xx bandmates Romy Croft (left) and Oliver Sim (right) were both featured on In Colour.

In Colour was composed over a five-year period, with Smith struggling to finish the music once he had started making it.^[3] Smith wanted to make an album that sounded like it did not come from any particular era.^[7] It is a dance music record^[8] and blends styles of UK garage,^[9][10] house^[10] and rave.^[10] Smith used vocal samples from British media sources that he had encountered while away on tour. The vocal sample at the beginning of "Girl" is taken from an episode of the British drama television series Top Boy, and "Gosh" features a clip from a BBC Radio 1 programme called One in the Jungle that was never aired.^[7] "Seesaw" was recorded in collaboration with Kieran Hebden.^[4] "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" is based around a sample of The Persuasions' 1971 song "Good Times" from their album Street Corner Symphony,^[4] which Smith had bought in Detroit.^[7] The song features vocals by American rapper Young Thug and Jamaican musician Popcaan, which were recorded separately and spliced together by Smith. ^[7]

Release

The first single from the album, "Sleep Sound", premiered on 27 March 2014.^[11] A music video for "Sleep Sound", directed by Sofia Mattioli and featuring 13 members of the Manchester Deaf Centre, was released on 10 April 2014.^[12] The second single from the album, "Girl", was released on 18 April 2014. "Girl" and "Sleep Sound" were later released as a double A-side on 5 May 2014.^[13]

In Colour was announced on 23 March 2015.^[14] On 25 March 2015, the tracks "Gosh" and "Loud Places" premiered on Annie Mac.^[15] On 27 March, a music video for "Loud Places", featuring Jamie xx and The xx bandmate Romy Madley Croft skateboarding at night in London, was released.^[16] On 27 April 2015, a music video for "Gosh" was released.^[17] On 11 May 2015, the song "I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)", featuring Young Thug and Popcaan, was released.^[18] On 26 May 2015, In Colour was streamed in its entirety on iTunes.^[19] In Colour was released on 29 May 2015 in digital, CD, LP and a limited deluxe triple-LP edition. The deluxe edition of the album, cut on coloured vinyl, featured two exclusive instrumental tracks.^[20]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[21]
The A.V. Club	B[22]
The Guardian	[8]
NME	9/10[23]
Noisey	A–[24]
The Observer	[25]
Pitchfork Media	9.3/10[26]
Q	[27]
Rolling Stone	[28]
Spin	9/10[29]

In Colour received widespread acclaim from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a weighted mean rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the album received an average score of 87, based on 39 reviews.^[30] Q magazine praised it as "an album so rich, complex and dazzlingly fluid" in a rave review,^[27] while Pitchfork Media's Mark Richardson called it a "dazzling culmination of Jamie xx’s last six years of work, gathering up elements of everything he’s done—moody ballads, floor-filling bangers, expansive and off-kilter collaborations with vocalists—and packing them tightly into a glittering ball that reflects spinning fragments of feeling back at us."^[26] Nina Corcoran of Consequence of Sound gave the album a grade of A, writing "Each song grows richer the more you explore its open space. Its minimalism breathes buckets of color. After one listen or 10, In Colour reflects brightly, a phenomenally poised and universally approachable solo debut."^[31] In another positive review, Phil Hebblethwaite of the NME wrote "[O]n an album defined by its creator making perfect choices, it fits, and you’d never know that Jamie cobbled ‘In Colour’ together on downtime over the last seven year."^[23] Gareth James of Clash called the album "an emotive, emphatic and often joyous collection of music that plays equally for the head and the heart."^[32] Robert Christgau wrote in Noisey that while the music functioned poorly as background music, listening to the record in the foreground left him captivated by the music's "glimmers of beat, snatches of melody, trick sounds, and fluctuating dynamics as well as the hooks with which most tracks are equipped and around which few are structured".^[24]

In a less enthusiastic review, Andrew Ryce of Resident Advisor remarks that In Colour is an "uneven album that's rarely as profound or as meaningful as it tries to be".^[33] In another mixed review, The Quietus' Christian Eede called the album "a collection of sexless, sonically conservative tracks overwrought in bass and nostalgia, and largely void of personality – club music for the neoliberal age."^[34]

Accolades

The album was nominated for the 2015 Mercury Music Prize^[35] and best Dance/Electronic Album at the 2016 Grammy Awards.^[36]

Publication	Accolade	Year	Rank
The Guardian	The Best Albums of 2015	2015	17[37]
NME	NME's Albums of the Year 2015	2015	3[38]
Pitchfork	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015	2[39]
	Readers' Top 50 Albums	2015	4[40]
Billboard	25 Best Albums of 2015: Critics' Picks	2015	6[41]
Rough Trade	Albums of the Year 2015	2015	10[42]
Stereogum	The 50 Best Albums of 2015	2015	11[43]

Track listing

No.	Title	Writer(s)	Length
1.	"Gosh"	Jamie Smith	4:51
2.	"Sleep Sound"	J. Smith Alicia Keys Kerry Brothers George Forrest Taneisha Smith Robert Wright	3:52
3.	"SeeSaw" (featuring Romy)	J. Smith Mary Buffett Billy Guy Kieran Hebden Romy Madley Croft Sylvia Robinson	4:28
4.	"Obvs"	J. Smith Hugh Masekela	3:51
5.	"Just Saying"	J. Smith	1:23
6.	"Stranger in a Room" (featuring Oliver Sim)	J. Smith David Oliver Sim	2:57
7.	"Hold Tight"	J. Smith	4:03
8.	"Loud Places" (featuring Romy)	J. Smith Croft Rick Nowels Tony Sarafino	4:43
9.	"I Know There's Gonna Be (Good Times)" (featuring Young Thug and Popcaan)	J. Smith Ted Daryll Andre Sutherland Jeffrey Williams	3:33
10.	"The Rest Is Noise"	J. Smith	4:58
11.	"Girl"	J. Smith Arthur Baker Rasmus Hägg Sebastian Maschat Erlend Oeye Marcin Oez John Robie Brian Wilson	4:05

Japanese edition bonus tracks[44]
No.	Title	Length
12.	"Stranger in a Room" (instrumental)	3:03
13.	"Loud Places" (instrumental)	4:51
14.	"All Under One Roof Raving" (instrumental)	5:55
15.	"All Under One Roof Raving"	5:59

Personnel

Credits adapted from the liner notes of In Colour.^[45]

Jamie Smith – production, recording (all tracks); mixing (tracks 1–8, 10, 11); engineering (track 6); artwork Tom Elmhirst – mixing Four Tet – co-production (track 3) Phil Lee – artwork Rodaidh McDonald – engineering (track 6) Novelist - sounds (additional background sample) (track 9) Mandy Parnell – mastering

Popcaan – vocals (track 9) Romy – vocals (tracks 3, 8); vocal samples (tracks 5, 6); guitar (tracks 6, 8) Oliver Sim – vocals (track 6) Joe Visciano – additional engineering (track 8); mixing assistance (all tracks) David Wrench – mixing (track 1) Young Thug – vocals (track 9)

Charts and certifications

Weekly charts Chart (2015) Peak position Australian Albums (ARIA)[46] 2 Australian Dance Albums (ARIA)[47] 1 Austrian Albums (Ö3 Austria)[48] 13 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[49] 4 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[50] 18 Danish Albums (Hitlisten)[51] 17 Dutch Albums (MegaCharts)[52] 4 French Albums (SNEP)[53] 26 German Albums (Offizielle Top 100)[54] 15 Greek Albums (IFPI)[55] 23 Irish Albums (IRMA)[56] 5 Irish Independent Albums (IRMA)[57] 1 Italian Albums (FIMI)[58] 39 Japanese Albums (Oricon)[59] 50 New Zealand Albums (RMNZ)[60] 7 Norwegian Albums (VG-lista)[61] 10 Portuguese Albums (AFP)[62] 9 Scottish Albums (OCC)[63] 3 Spanish Albums (PROMUSICAE)[64] 37 Swedish Albums (Sverigetopplistan)[65] 24 Swiss Albums (Schweizer Hitparade)[66] 8 UK Albums (OCC)[67] 3 UK Dance Albums (OCC)[68] 1 UK Digital Albums (OCC)[69] 2 UK Independent Albums (OCC)[70] 1 US Billboard 200[71] 21 US Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[72] 1 US Independent Albums (Billboard)[73] 2

Year-end charts Chart (2015) Position Australian Dance Albums (ARIA)[74] 16 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Flanders)[75] 47 Belgian Albums (Ultratop Wallonia)[76] 189 UK Albums (OCC)[77] 95 US Dance/Electronic Albums (Billboard)[78] 8 Certifications Region Certification Sales/shipments United Kingdom (BPI)[79] Silver 60,000 ^^shipments figures based on certification alone

Release history

Region	Date	Format	Edition	Label	Ref.
Australia	29 May 2015	CD LP digital download	Standard	Young Turks Remote Control	[80][81][82]
Germany		CD digital download		Young Turks XL	[83][84]
		LP	Standard deluxe		[85][86]
Ireland		CD LP digital download	Standard	Young Turks	[87][88][89]
France	1 June 2015				[90][91][92]
United Kingdom		CD digital download			[93][94]
		LP	Standard deluxe		[95][96]
United States	2 June 2015	CD LP digital download	Standard	XL	[97][98][99]
Japan	3 June 2015	CD digital download		Hostess	[44]

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External links

• In Colour at Discogs (list of releases)